Harvard has opened up remedial math classes for their students...
I guess the DOE SAT tests are a scam too.
SAT (Scholastic Assessment Test), ACT ((American College Testing), AP (Advanced Placement) Exams, IB (International Baccalaureate) Exams
The SAT is designed and administered by the College Board, a nonprofit organization. The ACT is created by ACT, Inc., another independent nonprofit.(nonprofit..that's just another government word for funding by but not run by..kinda like an NGO-so who is getting THAT money?)
These organizations establish the tests, set the formats, and oversee the administration. While the DOE doesn’t develop or directly approve these exams,it plays a role in shaping education policy and may support standardized testing initiatives. States or individual institutions often decide whether to accept these tests as part of their admissions or educational requirements.
The Harvard Math Department will pilot a new introductory course aimed at rectifying a lack of foundational algebra skills among students, according to Harvard’s Director of Introductory Math Brendan A. Kelly.
The course, titled Math MA5, will run alongside two established math courses — Math MA and MB — with an expanded five-day schedule.
Kelly said that students in MA5 will meet with “one of two instructors all five days” with “a variety of different activities” on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
He said the Covid-19 pandemic led to gaps in students’ math skills and learning abilities, prompting the need for a new introductory course.
“The last two years, we saw students who were in Math MA and faced a challenge that was unreasonable given the supports we had in the course. So we wanted to think about, ‘How can we create a course that really helps students step up to their aspirations?’” he said.
“Students don’t have the skills that we had intended downstream in the curriculum, and so it creates different trajectories in students’ math abilities,” Kelly added.
Despite the schedule differences, MA5 will reflect the material and structure of MA and MB, collectively known as Math M.
“Math MA5 is actually embedded in Math M,” Kelly said.
“They’ll have the same psets, they’ll have the same office hours, they’ll have MQC, they’ll take the same exams,” Kelly added, referring to the department’s Math Question Center. “So if you’re in MA5, you will experience Math M.”
Advertisement In addition to traditional placement tests, freshmen who placed into Math MA or 1A were required to take an additional skills check to determine their recommended enrollment.
He said the department “investigated a number of different strategies” used by different schools when assessing how to address students’ skill gaps.
“What we thought was the best thing to do — instead of adding another course before MA — was to add more time and support into MA for students who would need it.”
Kelly added that the choice to supplement Math M is intended to support students who face early challenges in their math courses.
“If the first one doesn’t go well, it can really make these lasting waves in their pathways,” Kelly said. “We want to avoid that. We want to make sure that students are on a path to success starting from their first day.”
Kelly acknowledged the difficulties that students in MA5 may face because of the course’s demanding time commitment, but said the daily meeting schedule is a necessary trade-off for students’ development.
“Five days a week does make it hard for some students’ schedules, and we thought about that in the planning, but we do really think that five days a week is — in the trade off — it’s gonna be worth it,” Kelly said.
Sure it will... but understand...these kids getting in...just needed $$$ the SAT's meant nada.
The problem is the right trying to end public education.
The right has spent decades trying to defund public schools and divert that to for profit education. Why is it the problem of the colleges that the students entering need remedial math? You don't seem very intelligent.
Ah, yes. The mantra that never dies: "The Public Schools are underfunded".
I graduated from the Public School system in New York (State, not City) in 1979.
My first year in college was academically a breeze, because I had already had Biology and Chemistry and Algebra and Trig, and knew how to write.
Partly because of COVID, partly because the Public Schools now for the most part suck, many kids entering college now need remedial courses to get up to college level academics.
How much you wanna bet that the Public Schools spent LESS per student when I went than they do now?
The Public Schools get WAY more money per student than is needed to educate children.
I went to public schools K-8 and had excellent teachers.
There comes a point when increasing spending merely increases the number of PERSONS involved and the number of programs. Eventually, the superfluity of persons and programs grows like a cancer, consuming the organization without providing an iota of benefit; to the contrary, funds are diverted from productive programs into useless garbage. No area of human endeavor displays this better than education.
A university once comprised several colleges, each of which comprised several departments. The university was directed by ONE president, each college was directed by ONE dean, each department was directed by ONE department head. This structure worked for centuries.
Today, universities have "vice presidents","assistant vice presidents"; colleges have "assistant deans", "sub-deans", and even "deanlets"; and so on. Most of these are NON-TEACHING POSITIONS, that is, they perform NO EDUCATION NOR RESEARCH WHATSOEVER. Instead, they administer "affirmative action" quotas and introduce preposterous pseudo-subjects such as "gender studies", "women's studies", "paranormal activities", "racial studies", "LGBTQ studies" "multiculturalism", "culture appropriation", "dialectal studies", ...
Serious attempts to improve education require abolition of these pseudo-subjects along with removal of those who introduced them and taught them.
